What if "The Kliq" Was Introduced As an On-Screen Stable?

[4-Real]

Okay, so most of us know what the Kliq was and who was a part of it. To put it short without going into too much detail, the Clique, or "Kliq" was a political backstage group of workers who used a heavy influence from VKM to further their careers in the WWF. The group was made up initially of Shawn Michaels, Diesel (Kevin Nash), and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall), and was eventually rounded out by Hunter Hearst Helmsley and the 1-2-3 Kid (Sean Waltman). The idea of the group was that they were a select few top guys who would worry about, and only worry about getting theirs. From '95 until Hall and Nash left for WCW, this group of guys had a major influence on all happenings in the WWF. Every single one of them were pushed to the moon, and next to the likes of Bret Hart, were all possible WWF Title contenders. The group was disbanded when Hall and Nash left for WCW in May '96.

So what if the group was made into a legitimate, on-screen stable, featuring all 5 guys? I could just see it now. HBK, Diesel and Razor are about to square off for the WWF title in the main event of a pay-per-view, but all of a sudden, all three of them start laughing and they shake hands. The next night, HBK announces the group's formation and that tonight, their domination would start with the IC championship. It's Razor vs Helmsley, and what happens? The two of them shake hands, just like last night. Soon enough, a heel 1-2-3 kid joins them, and the group is thus formed. HBK would be the WWF Champion, Hunter the IC Champion, Razor and Diesel Tag Team Champions, and were they to bring back the Light Heavyweight title earlier than they did, then the Kid could hold that title. Big faces like Austin and Rock would have been created trying to stop the group. Plus, Hall and Nash would have probably remained in WWF after seeing their backstage presence being taken on-screen, despite the amount of money they got paid to go to WCW.

On the downside, what you would have had there were 5 big egos, and their influence on the booking may have gotten out of control to the point where the WWF could have killed themselves. But who knows?

What I want to know is this:

1.) Would "The Kliq" have worked had the group been brought on-screen?

2.) Would we still have had the Monday Night Wars had still gone down had something as big as this have happened?

3.) How would the landscape of the WWF/E have changed, if at all, had the quintet been brought on screen?

 

[Miz>Awesome]

To answer the first question, I don't think the Kliq would have worked out. The Egos would have brought down the stable almost immediately. HBK would have been the obvious choice for leader, but then you have Nash, Hall, Hunter and Waltman all left filling in spaces. With all the guys in their prime, and all (with the exception of Waltman) easily being main event caliber guys, I just don't think Nash, Hall and Hunter would have sat idly by with mid card and tag team titles

To answer the second question, WCW would have folded a lot sooner than it had. Without Nash and Hall, the nWo would have never existed. Without the nWo, WCW would have had no shot at competing against the WWF

There would have been a lot of pro's and con's associated with the Kliq being brought on screen though. With half of the nWo in the Kliq and half of DX in the Kliq, those two factions would never have existed. Which leaves us to wonder what would have happened to guys like the New Age Outlaws. Would they have flourished and been as heavily respected without DX as their backbone? Maybe, but who knows.

Also, would Austin have gotten as big of a push as he did? Hunter was supposed to win the 96 KOTR but was punished because of the Curtain Call incident and the KOTR honors was given to Stone Cold.

I guess what I am getting at is that a lot could have changed if The Kliq would have been presented as an on-screen stable

 

[waylonmercy]

The closest thing to the Kliq was nWo in the WWE.

1) No, it would have been a WWE version of hte Kliq and probably would have been like DX in that they would be "too cool" for everyone else and overshadow everyone. The ONLY way they may not have been able to do that was when Rock/Austin/Foley were at their peek while in WWE but who's to say the Kliq would have allowed those 3 to reach their status. At that time Michaels was retiring with the back injury, HHH was still developing as a talent, Hall & Nash were in WCW and Waltman was really the weak guy of the group.

2) Probably not because had Michaels went to WCW I think the outcome may have been different. His impact would have been stronger than what Bret Hart did in WCW.

3) Depends on the timeframe, I think they may have kept developing talent down and they would have ran the show similar to when they all were in WWE. I think had that been the case WWE would be bankrupt since they almost took WWE down back then.

 

[closet_fan]

i shudder to think about it considering the pull they would have off screen, then on screen, they would never look weak. plus, like an OP said before, their egos would have gotten in the way to the point where it wouldn't have worked.

say michaels won the title and was the most over of all of them. you don't think it would have caused some friction with the other guys, outside of pac, who think "hey i want to hold the belt for awhile and get the same popularity."

yeah they were close friends, but it worked because they all had their own thing going on in the way of storylines. if it ended up that they were all involved in the same, i would hate to think about the conversations/arguments in the locker room every week.